= Release notes for the Microsoft Windows ports of OCaml =
:toc: macro

There are no fewer than three ports of OCaml for Microsoft Windows, each
available in 32 and 64-bit versions:

  - native Windows, built with the Microsoft C/C++ Optimizing Compiler
  - native Windows, built using the Mingw-w64 version of GCC
  - Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com[www.cygwin.com])

Here is a summary of the main differences between these ports:

|=====
|                                        | Native Microsoft       | Native Mingw-w64 | Cygwin
4+^| Third-party software required
| for base bytecode system               | none                   | none             | none
| for `ocamlc -custom`                     | Microsoft Visual C++   | Cygwin           | Cygwin
| for native-code generation             | Microsoft Visual C++   | Cygwin           | Cygwin
4+^| Features
| Speed of bytecode interpreter          | 70%                    | 100%             | 100%
| Replay debugger                        | yes <<tb2,(**)>>       | yes <<tb2,(**)>> | yes
| The Unix library                       | partial                | partial          | full
| The Threads library                    | yes                    | yes              | yes
| The Graphics library                   | yes                    | yes              | no
| Restrictions on generated executables? | none                   | none             | yes <<tb1,(*)>>
|=====

[[tb1]]
(*):: Cygwin-generated `.exe` files refer to a DLL that is distributed under the
GPL.  Thus, these `.exe` files can only be distributed under a license that is
compatible with the GPL.  Executables generated by Microsoft Visual C++ or
Mingw-w64 have no such restrictions.

[[tb2]]
(**):: The debugger is supported but the "replay" functions are not enabled.
Other functions are available (step, goto, run...).

Cygwin aims to provide a Unix-like environment on Windows, and the build
procedure for it is the same as for other flavours of Unix.  See
link:INSTALL.adoc[] for full instructions.

The native ports require Windows XP or later and naturally the 64-bit versions
need a 64-bit edition of Windows (note that this is both to run *and* build).

The two native Windows ports have to be built differently, and the remainder of
this document gives more information.

toc::[]

== PREREQUISITES

All the Windows ports require a Unix-like build environment.  Although other
methods are available, the officially supported environment for doing this is
32-bit (x86) Cygwin.

Only the `make` Cygwin package is required. `diffutils` is required if you wish
to be able to run the test suite.

Unless you are also compiling the Cygwin port of OCaml, you should not install
the `gcc-core` or `flexdll` packages. If you do, care may be required to ensure
that a particular build is using the correct installation of `flexlink`.

[[bmflex]]
In addition to Cygwin, FlexDLL must also be installed, which is available from
https://github.com/alainfrisch/flexdll. A binary distribution is available;
instructions on how to build FlexDLL from sources, including how to bootstrap
FlexDLL and OCaml are given <<seflexdll,later in this document>>.  Unless you
bootstrap FlexDLL, you will need to ensure that the directory to which you
install FlexDLL is included in your `PATH` environment variable. Note: if you
use Visual Studio 2015 or Visual Studio 2017, the binary distribution of
FlexDLL will not work and you must build it from sources.

The base bytecode system (ocamlc, ocaml, ocamllex, ocamlyacc, ...) of all three
ports runs without any additional tools.

== Microsoft Visual C/C++ Ports

=== REQUIREMENTS

The native-code compiler (`ocamlopt`) and static linking of OCaml bytecode with
C code (`ocamlc -custom`) require a Microsoft Visual C/C++ Compiler and the
`flexlink` tool (see <<bmflex,above>>).

Any edition (including Express/Community editions) of Microsoft Visual Studio
2005 or later may be used to provide the required Windows headers and the C
compiler. Additionally, some older Microsoft Windows SDKs include the
Visual C/C++ Compiler.

|=====
|                    | `cl` Version | Express                 | SDK
| Visual Studio 2005 | 14.00.x.x    | 32-bit only <<vs1,(*)>> |
| Visual Studio 2008 | 15.00.x.x    | 32-bit only             | Windows SDK 7.0 also provides 32/64-bit compilers
| Visual Studio 2010 | 16.00.x.x    | 32-bit only             | Windows SDK 7.1 also provides 32/64-bit compilers
| Visual Studio 2012 | 17.00.x.x    | 32/64-bit               |
| Visual Studio 2013 | 18.00.x.x    | 32/64-bit               |
| Visual Studio 2015 | 19.00.x.x    | 32/64-bit               |
| Visual Studio 2017 | 19.10.x.x    | 32/64-bit               |
|=====

[[vs1]]
(*):: Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition does not provide an assembler; this can be
      downloaded separately from
      https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=12654

=== COMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES

The command-line tools must be compiled from the Unix source distribution
(`ocaml-X.YY.Z.tar.gz`), which also contains the files modified for Windows.
(Note: you should use cygwin's `tar` command to unpack this archive. If you
use WinZip, you will need to deselect "TAR file smart CR/LF conversion" in
the WinZip Options Window.)

Microsoft Visual C/C++ is designed to be used from special developer mode
Command Prompts which set the environment variables for the required compiler.
There are multiple ways of setting up your environment ready for their use.  The
simplest is to start the appropriate command prompt shortcut from the program
group of the compiler you have installed.

The details differ depending on whether you are using a Windows SDK to provide
the compiler or Microsoft Visual Studio itself.

For the Windows SDK, there is only one command prompt called "CMD Shell" in
versions 6.1 and 7.0 and "Windows SDK 7.1 Command Prompt" in version 7.1. This
launches a Command Prompt which will usually select a `DEBUG` build environment
for the operating system that you are running. You should then run:

  SetEnv /Release /x86

for 32-bit or:

  SetEnv /Release /x64

for 64-bit. For Visual Studio 2005-2013, you need to use one of the shortcuts in
the "Visual Studio Tools" program group under the main program group for the
version of Visual Studio you installed. For Visual Studio 2015 and 2017, you
need to use the shortcuts in the "Windows Desktop Command Prompts" (2015) or
"VC" (2017) group under the "Visual Studio Tools" group.

Unlike `SetEnv` for the Windows SDK, the architecture is selected by using a
different shortcut, rather than by running a command.

For Visual Studio 2005-2010, excluding version-specific prefixes, these are
named "Command Prompt" for 32-bit and "x64 Cross Tools Command Prompt" or
"x64 Win64 Command Prompt" for 64-bit. It does not matter whether you use a
"Cross Tools" or "Win64" version for x64, this simply refers to whether the
compiler itself is a 32-bit or 64-bit program; both produce 64-bit output and
work with OCaml.

For Visual Studio 2012 and 2013, both x86 and x64 Command Prompt shortcuts
indicate if they are the "Native Tools" or "Cross Tools" versions. Visual Studio
2015 and 2017 make the shortcuts even clearer by including the full name of the
architecture.

You cannot at present use a cross-compiler to compile 64-bit OCaml on 32-bit
Windows.

Once you have started a Command Prompt, you can verify that you have the
compiler you are expecting simply by running:

  cl
  Microsoft (R) C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 19.00.23506 for x86
  ...

You then need to start Cygwin from this Command Prompt.  Assuming you have
installed it to its default location of `C:\cygwin`, simply run:

  C:\cygwin\bin\mintty -

(note the space and hyphen at the end of the command).

This should open a terminal window and start bash.  You should be able to run
`cl` from this.  You can now change to the top-level directory of the directory
of the OCaml distribution.

The Microsoft Linker is provided by a command called `link` which unfortunately
conflicts with a Cygwin command of the same name.  It is therefore necessary to
ensure that the directory containing the Microsoft C/C++ Compiler appears at
the beginning of `PATH`, before Cygwin's `/usr/bin`.  You can automate this from
the top-level of the OCaml distribution by running:

  eval $(tools/msvs-promote-path)

If you forget to do this, `make -f Makefile.nt world` will fail relatively
quickly as it will be unable to link `ocamlrun`.

Now run:

        cp config/m-nt.h config/m.h
        cp config/s-nt.h config/s.h

followed by:

        cp config/Makefile.msvc config/Makefile

for 32-bit, or:

        cp config/Makefile.msvc64 config/Makefile

for 64-bit. Then, edit `config/Makefile` as needed, following the comments in
this file. Normally, the only variable that needs to be changed is `PREFIX`,
which indicates where to install everything.

Finally, use `make -f Makefile.nt` to build the system, e.g.

        make -f Makefile.nt world bootstrap opt opt.opt install

After installing, it is not necessary to keep the Cygwin installation (although
you may require it to build additional third party libraries and tools).  You
will need to use `ocamlopt` (or `ocamlc -custom`) from the same Visual Studio or
Windows SDK Command Prompt as you compiled OCaml from, or `ocamlopt` will not
be able to find `cl`.

If you wish to use `ocamlopt` from Cygwin's bash on a regular basis, you may
like to copy the `tools/msvs-promote-path` script and add the `eval` line to
your `~/.bashrc` file.

* The Microsoft Visual C/C++ compiler does not implement "computed gotos", and
  therefore generates inefficient code for `byterun/interp.c`.  Consequently,
  the performance of bytecode programs is about 2/3 of that obtained under
  Unix/GCC,  Cygwin or Mingw-w64 on similar hardware.

* Libraries available in this port: `bigarray`, `dynlink`, `graphics`, `num`,
  `str`, `threads`, and large parts of `unix`.

* The replay debugger is partially supported (no reverse execution).

=== CREDITS

The initial port of Caml Special Light (the ancestor of OCaml) to Windows NT
was done by Kevin Gallo at Microsoft Research, who kindly contributed his
changes to the OCaml project.

== Mingw-w64 Ports

=== REQUIREMENTS

The native-code compiler (`ocamlopt`) and static linking of OCaml bytecode with
C code (`ocamlc -custom`) require the appropriate Mingw-w64 gcc and the
`flexlink` tool (see <<bmflex,above>>). Mingw-w64 gcc is provided by the
`mingw64-i686-gcc-core` package for 32-bit and the `mingw64-x86_64-gcc-core`
package for 64-bit.

  - Do not try to use the Cygwin version of flexdll for this port.

  - The standalone mingw toolchain from the Mingw-w64 project
    (http://mingw-w64.org/) is not supported. Please use the version packaged in
    Cygwin instead.

=== COMPILATION FROM THE SOURCES

The command-line tools must be compiled from the Unix source distribution
(`ocaml-X.YY.Z.tar.gz`), which also contains the files modified for Windows.
(Note: you should use cygwin's `tar` command to unpack this archive. If you
use WinZip, you will need to deselect "TAR file smart CR/LF conversion" in
the WinZip Options Window.)

Now run:

        cp config/m-nt.h config/m.h
        cp config/s-nt.h config/s.h

followed by:

        cp config/Makefile.mingw config/Makefile

for 32-bit, or:

        cp config/Makefile.mingw64 config/Makefile

for 64-bit. Then, edit `config/Makefile` as needed, following the comments in
this file. Normally, the only variable that needs to be changed is `PREFIX`,
which indicates where to install everything.

Finally, use `make -f Makefile.nt` to build the system, e.g.

        make -f Makefile.nt world bootstrap opt opt.opt install

After installing, you will need to ensure that `ocamlopt` (or `ocamlc -custom`)
can access the C compiler.  You can do this either by using OCaml from Cygwin's
bash or by adding Cygwin's bin directory (e.g. `C:\cygwin\bin`) to your `PATH`.

* Libraries available in this port: `bigarray`, `dynlink`, `graphics`, `num`,
  `str`, `threads`, and large parts of `unix`.

* The replay debugger is partially supported (no reverse execution).

* The default `config/Makefile.mingw` and `config/Makefile.mingw64` pass
  `-static-libgcc` to the linker. For more information on this topic:

  - http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.9.1/gcc/Link-Options.html#Link-Options
  - http://caml.inria.fr/mantis/view.php?id=6411

[[seflexdll]]
== FlexDLL
Although the core of FlexDLL is necessarily written in C, the `flexlink` program
is, naturally, written in OCaml.  This creates a circular dependency if you wish
to build entirely from sources.  Since OCaml 4.03 and FlexDLL 0.35, it is now
possible to bootstrap the two programs simultaneously.  The process is identical
for both ports.  If you choose to compile this way, it is not necessary to
install FlexDLL separately -- indeed, if you do install FlexDLL separately, you
may need to be careful to ensure that `ocamlopt` picks up the correct `flexlink`
in your `PATH`.

You must place the FlexDLL sources for Version 0.35 or later in the directory
`flexdll/` at the top-level directory of the OCaml distribution.  This can be
done in one of three ways:

 * Extracting the sources from a tarball from
   https://github.com/alainfrisch/flexdll/releases
 * Cloning the git repository by running:
+
  git clone https://github.com/alainfrisch/flexdll.git

 * If you are compiling from a git clone of the OCaml repository, instead of
   using a sources tarball, you can run:
+
  git submodule update --init

OCaml is then compiled as normal for the port you require, except that before
compiling `world`, you must compile `flexdll`, i.e.:

  make -f Makefile.nt flexdll world [bootstrap] opt opt.opt install

 * `make -f Makefile.nt install` will install FlexDLL by placing `flexlink.exe`
   (and the default manifest file for the Microsoft port) in `bin/` and the
   FlexDLL object files in `lib/`.
 * If you don't include `make -f Makefile.nt opt.opt`, `flexlink.exe` will be a
   bytecode program.  `make -f Makefile.nt install` always installs the "best"
   `flexlink.exe` (i.e. there is never a `flexlink.opt.exe` installed).
 * If you have populated `flexdll/`, you *must* run
   `make -f Makefile.nt flexdll`.  If you wish to revert to using an externally
   installed FlexDLL, you must erase the contents of `flexdll/` before
   compiling.

== Trademarks

Microsoft, Visual C++, Visual Studio and Windows are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
